Hundreds of Korean War veterans listened as government officials, including President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, commended their service Saturday, on the 60th anniversary of the war’s end. (Photo by Sarah Ferris)

David Velasco was six years old when his brother Frank went missing just near Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

On the 60th anniversary of the war’s end, the Houston veteran described the pain of never knowing his brother’s fate.

“Whether he was taken prisoner or killed on the battlefield, we don’t know,” Velasco said at a national ceremony honoring Korean War veterans Saturday, where President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also spoke.

Sgt. Frank Velasco is one of 7,900 American soldiers whose remains are still lost after the Korean War. Velasco said while that figure may seem like “just another cold, clinical statistic,” it represents the number of families who never received closure.

As Obama spoke Saturday, he honored the 300,000 American soldiers who served, and those who died anonymously there. Just last week, Obama said, a soldier’s remains were flown to Pennsylvania for his family to bury.

Standing just steps from the Korean War memorial, Obama told the hundreds of veterans seated before him that they “deserved better” for their hard-fought victory after enduring hot dusty summers and winters so bitterly cold that it froze their food.

‘‘Unlike the Second World War, Korea did not galvanize our country. These veterans did not return to parades,’’ Obama said. “Unlike Vietnam, Korea did not tear at our country. These veterans did not return to protests. For many Americans tired of war, there was, it seemed, a desire to forget, to move on.”

While the countries never reached a final peace agreement after the war – leading many in the U.S. to denounce it as a wasted effort – Obama said the victory is clearer six decades after signing the armistice.”

That war was no tie. That was a victory,” Obama said. He also said the war, which ended more than a decade of American isolation after World War II, “taught us the perils of when we fail to prepare.”

He urged Americans to pause their “hurried lives” to listen to the veterans’ stories – the way the soldiers should have been welcomed when they flew home. Instead, he said those soldiers shed their uniforms and went to work: “That was about it.”

There are about 2.4 million living Korean War veterans, at an average age of 81, according to the Defense Department. About 20,000 U.S. troops remain in South Korea as American officials continue to monitor threats by North Korea.

Some families, like Velasco and his wife, still hold out hope that the military will learn the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Velasco, who served in Korea and Thailand before volunteering Vietnam, now serves as the MIA/POW officer for the Texas branch of the Korean War Veterans Association. He still attends annual meetings hosted by Department of Defense to update families about missing U.S. soldiers from Korea.

In a letter to his brother published as part of the Korean War Project’s “Letters to the Lost,” Velasco said there’s “only two of us left at home that you knew.” He described his grandson, who has his brother’s same dimple and smile.

“You’d think he was your kiddo. He looks so much like you,” Velasco wrote before signing, “We’ll keep you in our prayers until you come home.”